We’ve entered a new era of note-taking.
This is the biggest leap in capability we’ve seen since computers digitized our notes. In an instant we can search the entire database of our notes for a thought or idea we previously recorded. The period we’re in now is equally pivotal.
Artificial intelligence is the ideal note-taking collaborator. It excels in areas where our minds often falter: analyzing and storing data. AI enables us to recklessly jot down thoughts and ideas without pausing to arrange them. Building a second brain is becoming increasingly effortless.
What can AI already do in our notes?
Organize thoughts and ideas
Have you ever tried to convey a large chunk of information from your mind, only to find it was incomprehensible once articulated?
AI finds no problem with this. It accepts your rambles, and transforms them into key takeaways, action points and insights.
Summarize articles you read
We read many things in a day. And we come across countless more that we wish to read but can't.
AI enables us to retain information from both categories by crafting clear, concise summaries that we can save in our notes. This capability allows us to consume and remember information at unprecedented levels.
Transcribe thoughts
AI tools like Whisper can transcribe voice notes into written ones with near human-level accuracy. Effortlessly record thoughts without slowing your thinking to write things down.
Using AI copy editors, we can now organize these voice notes into article outlines, key takeaways and action items. We can already take all of our meeting notes without ever touching a keyboard.
Improve writing quality (and speed)
Employing AI in our writing is akin to having an all-knowing editor living within our notes.
AI can handle most of the laborious tasks involved in writing. It can generate article outlines based on our notes, find factual evidence, analogies, and historical examples for blog posts, and even rephrase sections of our writing that we're not satisfied with—in another author's tone, if desired.
Want to see some of these in action? Watch the Reflect AI assistant create an article outline from a voice note, or act as an executive assistant for a meeting.
What lies ahead for AI in our notes?
It’s anyone’s prediction to make. The AI movement is evolving at such a velocity, predicting what the landscape looks like just a few weeks out feels implausible.
Still, we can speculate.
Since AI can already access the internet, it's conceivable that our AI assistants will soon be able to browse the web on our behalf, enhancing fact-checking and intellectual sparring abilities. In time, we might be able to train our AI assistants using our notes, allowing them to tailor solutions to our needs and preferences or even identify areas where we can improve.
Semantic search will employ natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand context, concepts, and relationships within our notes. Instead of merely relying on keyword matching, semantic search will delve deeper into the meaning and intent behind the content. This approach will enable us to find more relevant and meaningful results, even if the exact keywords are not present in the notes. The efficiency and accuracy of searching for specific information will be greatly enhanced.
Auto backlinking will emerge as another game-changer. Imagine your AI assistant being able to detect and forge connections between related notes. This intricate web of ideas will profoundly enrich the user's knowledge base. Our second brains will be comprehensive, organized and built automatically through our notes.
Chatbots will also continue to evolve. Imagine a virtual assistant capable of accessing and comprehending our notes, providing answers or suggestions based on previous thoughts and research we have collected. It will be more akin to conversing with a knowledgeable confidant than a computer. The chatbot will deliver personalized support, encourage brainstorming, and even spur the generation of novel ideas.
These predictions are modest. But already we can prepare ourselves by extracting more knowledge and insights from our brains. We must take more notes. Pre-AI, we had to be particularly conscious of how we recorded our notes. That concern is quickly fading.
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